About Us
I guess I’ve been messing about in boats most of my life so starting a little boat business looked like a good excuse to continue messing around in boats. . .only this time messing about a whole lot more.
Hi...! I’m Tim Ryerson the founder and co-owner of InflatableBoats4Less. Don’t tell my wife Crystal (co-owner and chief financial officer and the pretty lady to the right) why I'm really doing this because she thinks were doing this for the money. “Why else would Tim come out of retirement?” she reasons.
"It’s not about money Crystal. It's really all about the boats...Messing about in Boats."
Using Inflatable Boats while Traveling
Motorhome #1
This is the way it started. It was 1998 and I'd just traded a stressful Real Estate Brokers job...and a building lot... for a 1995 Allegro motor home. Bypass surgery gives you time to examine your priorities and it was time to change gears...and fast! We bought our first inflatable boat as way to scratch our boating itch while traveling in that motorhome. After a lot of research we bought a Sea Eagle 435 Deluxe PaddleSki. I was skeptical that an inflatable would give me the performance I was accustomed to, but after the first weekend on the Colorado River, we became believers. The Sea Eagle boat was easy and fast to inflate and fast across the water with remarkable stability. Then just a few minutes to deflate, roll up and toss under our motorhome and. . . well. . . we were really sold...and life was at last becoming peaceful! For a while.
The Beginning of our Fleet
This Sea Eagle Paddle-Ski was to be the first Sea Eagle in the InflatableBoats4Less "fleet". We continued to travel but now sought out locations where we could haul out the Sea Eagle 435 PaddleSki catamaran kayak. We continued to be amazed how much interest and how many questions our Sea Eagle aroused. Our set-up time became longer and longer as we responded to these questions.
In front of Motormone #2 at our first big
Sea Eagle boat exhibit in Quartzsite AZ.
Early 2000's.
As we shared our newfound love and knowledge of Sea Eagle inflatable boats a glimmer of an idea began. We could become Sea Eagle Dealers and travel to RV Shows, Boat Shows, and Outdoor Sports Shows exhibiting Sea Eagle boats combining our hobbies of kayaking and RV'ing. One year later this became a reality and InflatableBoats4Less was formed. Within the first ten years lInflatableBoats4Less is to become Sea Eagle’s largest dealer selling in excess of 1000 boats a year. More about this later.
Motorhome #3 pulled over to deploy roof mounted satellite internet
while emailing Sea Eagle boat orders to Sea Eagle headquartes.
So....where are we today..?
A Blog...
By now you'll begin to notice this section of the IB4L website is more bloggish...a blog more about about Tim and Crystal..then a Sea Eagle commercial website. Or maybe...just maybe... this whole website is a blog because the way I see it..InflatableBoats4Less has always been more about Tim and Crystal...then about business.
While you ponder this, here are some pretty good pics which illustrate our unique lifestyle.
But first here's
The Rest of the Story...
Along about 2005 our little boat business became more a than just a hobby. Folks seemed to like our low prices and honest advice and started buying our Sea Eagle boats. Lots of boat! More boats than one man could handle so Crystal joined the business full time! Back a ways I mentioned that we traveled to shows showing and selling Sea Eagle boats in our motorhome. Well...when Crystal joined the team we decided to do something we had wanted to do...had planned to do... for a long time.. Travel the USA in our motorhome doin' business while visiting every state in the union. Well we left in that old motorhome...and we haven't been back! We wore out two motorhomes and are now in our third motorhome, a 41' 2005 Monaco Diplomat pulling a 2010 Honda CRV dingy. We keep our inflatable boat business afloat with two laptops, two cellphones...and a Hughes Net Satellite Internet network backed up by a Verizon air-card. And...when there's time.... we still find ourselves afloat on a Sea Eagle 435 PaddleSki Deluxe.
On Januuary 25th 2010 we closed the doors on our last show The Quartzsite, AZ RV Show.This was our 11th and last Quartzsite RV Show! It seems fitting somehow that our last show was the Quartzsite RV Show the site of our very first show so many years ago.
You don't mean it's all over...?
Prescott,AZ ....the boat house...in the mountains.
Not at all,at all! The growth of InflatableBoats4less.com, and lately RVSunshades4Less.com's online sales has been remarkable and demands all of our attention from the 4th. quarter of 2010... and onward. So while our travels will continue we will become more fixed based, rotating with the seasons between our Prescott, AZ mountain cabin and Surprise, AZ desert homes homes while spending our summers at the Sea Eagle boat testing grounds in the cool Black Hills of South Dakota
Be looking forward to new and exciting content as InflatableBoats4Less enters their second decade.
 
Pactola Lake Black Hills SD...our summer testing grounds. Hart Ranch near Rapid City, SD our summer home
 
Outdoor living at our winter home at Happy Trails
Surprise, AZ
Here some pics of our trip...so far....
Alaska
 
Mommy Griz' and cub fishing for salmon on weir across lower Chilkoot River. Mom swims off and the young cub hears her call. Haines, Alaska 8/17/08
Along comes a young male Grizzly and chases Mom and Cub
and nearby fishermen from his turf while a Bald Eagle waits
his turn at the salmon from a nearby spruce.
Chilkoot River Haines, Alaska 08/18/06
Cannery near Haines Alaska 08/18/06
Denali taken from the air...!
Talkeetna, Alaska 08/06/06
Denali (Mount McKinley) is 20,430' high. Full views of the magnificent mountain
are rare. Alaskan tourists are fortunate if they can say they viewed Denali.
Our solution...fly up...up above the clouds that obscure views from the ground...and...take a look.
The pictures above show a old 1960's radial engined Beaver that's just below
our plane flying, in formation, between the spires that make up the summit of Denali.
Two glaciers merge to form Ruth Glacier, a 35 mile long river of ice.
At the head of the right arm...up there in the shadows... is the head of Ruth Glacier...pilots call it
Mountain House. We will be attempting to land our ski-equipted 1969 Otter on Mountain House. Just after I took this picture I remembered the Alaska Bush pilot's definition of a successful landing.
"A successful landing is any landing that you walk away from...!"
Denali National Park, Alaska 08/06/06
20,430' main peak of Denali. The head of Ruth Glacier
just ahead as we are on final to glacier landing on
Mt. Denali.
Denali National Park, Alaska 08/06/06
Successful landing at Mountain House on Mt. McKinley(Denali).
Denali National Park, Alaska 08/06/06
L.to R. Tim, Paul(our pilot), and Crystal.
20,430' Mt McKinley (Denali) looms above our 1969 10-place Otter. Paul owns Talkeetna Air Taxi. The fleet includes a few Beavers and a few Cessna 165's and just one Otter. This Otter was just rebuilt. Today's value..just over 1 Million. They don't make these..or anything like them...anymore.
We left Mountain House and shortly later stood the otter on one wing and then down, down , down to yet another landing on Eldridge Glacier. Glacier approaches and landings are made uphill
at a 30 degree angle to slow you up...fast! Takeoffs are downhill and you leap of the face of the mountain within 50 feet. We are still looking for words big enough, spiritual enough, to describe our day on Denali...!
Denali National Park, Alaska 08/06/06
Kenai River RW Fishcamp Soldotna, Alaska 07/28/06
Crystal..again...and a nice 54 pound King Salmon. Maybe nice is
an understatement...
this was a huge fish
...but I'm gettting tired of
Crystal catching all the big ones...!
Crystal and a nice silver salmon
caught on Resurrection Bay
Seward, Alaska 07/24/06 
Crystal and a future Iditarod sled-dog star.
Taken at Iditarod training facility in Seward, Alaska 07/22/06
Camping on Prince William Sound on a cool evening calls for a fire.
The Whittier/Cordova Ferry is pulling in to the ferry dock.
Valdez, Alaska 08/17/06
The local Alaskan kids love Alaskan summers. They can stay
up all night in this land of the midnight sun or they take a dip
in a cozy cove on Prince William Sound. The water is fresh
from the ice field above!
Valdez, Alaska 07/13/06
 
A Sea Eagle 435 PaddleSki on Prince William Sound.
This handy kayak travels down the road inflated and loaded
on out truck and is ready to go when we are.
Valdez, Alaska 07/13/06
Top three pictures show different ways to catch Pink Salmon in Prince William Sound near Valdez, Alaska.July is peak for Pinks with the Silvers yet to come. Halibut is caught 75 miles from the harbors in the Gulf of Alaska. Biggest this year 262 pounds. 07/12/06
Bottom picture taken at 9:00 PM shows one man's catch caught that day on one of the many charters sailing from Valdez harbor. We visited the dock every night to see the days catch come in. l. to r. above. Rock Fish, Halibut (100 pounds), Orange Roughy, Ling Cod,?, ?, and Rockfish, Rockfish 07/12/06
On the Road to Valdez,Alaska 07/10/06
Colombia Glacier on Glacier Bay near Valdez, Alaska 07/10/06
Now we take a break for this commercial message:
We Can Help Select the right Sea Eagle for YOUR Boating Needs!
Not sure which boat will work best for you? Just ask. We've tried them all and we can help you find the perfect boat to fit your needs.
We are available 24/7 to answer your questions and each boat comes with Tips and Hints to start you off right! We also do daily Internet searches to find the lowest prices available and then BEAT THEM!
We guarantee the lowest price on Sea Eagle...period!
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Tim Ryerson
Inflatable Boats 4 Less
Tim@InflatableBoats4Less.com |
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